"Nearly perfect..."

Introduction The fast blue hedgehog, also known as Sega’s mascot, is beginning his own adventure especially for the Genesis! Whiz through stages and collect rings, but remember! Dr. Robotnik is out there… just waiting to rip you in pieces…

Yay, and there goes another one of totally crap intros! Sorry, I just couldn’t think of anything else, so nyah. =P Just joking, for all those serious gamers out there! Anyway, Sonic uses his speed to outrun enemies, killing Dr. Robotniks machines and turning them to sawdust. Even if this game is old, it SO doesn’t mean it’s bad, “out” or old fashioned. Sonic the hedgehog is recommended by many of my friends and me for those gamers (well, mostly Genesis owners) out there who feel bored and have nothing to do on weekends or holidays. A great way to spend those rainy, stormy or cold days when one is just lying there, having nothing to do. Take note though! This game is (sadly) only playable for one person at a time, so think about it before inviting anyone over to play. Um… yeah. I believe this introduction is probably much better than the one at the top.

Gameplay – 8/10 Some thing you should always remember: when it’s Sonic, it’s rings, risks, emeralds and Robotnik. No matter what else there is, you can always tell when it’s a Sonic game if those 4 things are noticeable. Why rings? The rings are important because they can keep you from dying even if you only have one. They are scattered all over the stages, so if you lose any you can easily collect a few again. And another thing: after you lose them, they jump about a bit before disappearing so you can collect some of them again. Why risks? If you have at least one ring, you can go through a risky passage or tunnel without the fear of dying. Taking risks is something that’s needed in Sth1 (short way of saying “Sonic the Hedgehog” for Genesis), so you’ll have to get used to that, no matter what. Which emeralds? Which emeralds, you ask? Hmm… you must be really new to Sonic games if you don’t know which emeralds I’m talking about! Anyway, the Chaos Emeralds, 7 emeralds (six in this game), have so much power in them, that it is possible to conquer, destroy or completely demolish the world or anything else when all 7 (or six in this game) are obtained. In this game, it doesn’t mean much, but in the other Sonic games… you’ll find this out if you play them. Who’s Robotnik? Dr. Robotnik, the fatso guy who’s there to stop Sonic and conquer the world. Like in most stories, there is a bad guy and a hero. Robotnik is the bad guy, in this case. He always has been, in any Sonic game till now.

Weee… the fun! I forgot to include this into my “basic stuff” paragraph above this! Well, lets see. A good Sonic game is also recognized by its fun factor. If you enjoy playing Sonic games, way to go! If not, you better find something else, because this may mean you wont really enjoy the other Sonic games. Just my opinion, don’t start e-mailing me and flaming! LOL =P. So, remember: good old game we know here is fun, fun and again fun. Ok, it’s not THAT fun when you cant pass a place a lot of times and get frustrated and throw your controller out the window. It’s just fun to play as Sonic!

All right… who invented the Genesis controller, and Sonic moves in this game? Whoever it was, you didn’t really do a great job. Sonic does about 3 moves in total. Running, jumping and rolling. Crouching, looking up and killing baddies aren’t really important moves, although the crouch can be used to dodge things like Boss or enemy attacks… Well, you should get my basic point: the controls are what make this game a bit worse than perfect…

Story – 10/10The old Sonic plot will probably always be the same. The basic old plot, incase you don’t know: Sonic has to collect all the Chaos Emeralds and stop Robotnik before he destroys everything with his machines. You have to collect rings and kill baddies to earn points. The Sonic Team may change a few things in the story, but the Emeralds, Sonic, rings, Robotnik and other important like the baddies and the background music should always stay to represent this fabulous hedgie! His other games may include new characters, moves and a different game plot, but the story hasn’t really changed over the past few years. Many Sonic fans will mourn the changes if they are too big and worse than usual. Many may even lose interest in Sonic games! That would be a nightmare for the Sonic Team, I suppose… Fast, unbeatable and blue, all hail Sonic the Hedgehog! Bleh, another one of my crappy sentences… Don’t get used to them, though.

Audio/Video – 8/10The graphics in this game are awesome. The stages are the best I’ve yet seen for Genesis games. They contain vivid colors and are neatly designed with great effort. The backgrounds are awesome, and simply wonderful due to their “environment” and the 3D affect, even though this is a 2D game. Sonic animations, actual sprite is done very well, and the badniks (the baddies) are also done well. The rings have a golden shine to them, so they’re easy to spot. The items, “environment” and Robotnik himself are also done very well.

The music isn’t that good, bit it’s definitely not bad. Yeah, it did sort of take away the “perfect” score, but its nothing to worry about, the sound doesn’t ruin the game much. And if you’re still not really sure, you can just mute you TV! So, the sound in this game is OK. It actually fits to the stages pretty well, but only some of them. The others are good too, but they don’t go together that well… The sound affects are a whole different thing. They make the game livelier, if you know what I mean. No sound affects = this game probably gets a 7/10 from me. They’re great, and they actually sound as if the character or item is doing that. =)

Replay Value – 9/10 Most Sonic games you may come across will have a high replay value. That is because they have large levels with many secrets, and it’s interesting to find all of the hidden tunnels, passages and items. Most of these things are usually shown in a FAQ for that game, but you can find them yourself, if you want to. The other reason why you can play this game many times could be because of the special stages, or maybe you just want to play it! I don’t know, there are way too many ways why you can replay this game many times without getting too bored quick. But after some time you may just decide to drop this game for a while and do something else…

Pros + and Cons - The pros and cons (the advantages and disadvantages) in this game will be as follows: the plus (+) indicates the pros, and the minuses (-) indicate the cons. Note that I’m only listing some of the pros and cons.

+This game has a good story line, and its not complicating to understand The stages can be fun and surprising The animations are great and you don’t “lose” yourself This game can be played many times, out down for some time and be played again

-The controls are too simple The music isn’t always too good The special stages or parts in the stages can get one to be really frustrated The underwater bits in stages are just plain annoying

Happy? =)

To buy or to rent? That is the question… This is hard, but I’d rather you buy the game. It’s got a great replay value and will take you some time to finish and get bored of. The Sth1 board (on GameFAQs) could help you too, but it’s really totally up to you to decide. If my review still hasn’t convinced you to how good this game is, you could take the time and read others, if you haven’t already. Good luck on deciding!

OVER ALL RATING – 9/10This game is great every way you look at it, except for minor cons like some of the music and the controls. All in all, I’d really recommend it to you, even if you’ve never played or heard of Sonic before! Come on, its worth the money!